Post Crisis, however, might well have been above herald level, but if so, wasn't much...he showed he could be defeated 1 on 1 by Superman and Orion at the very least, with some good showings by others as well.

That has never been the case. Superman and Orion have never come close to beating Darkseid under their normal power levels.

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According to Surfer and Terrax, the combined set of heralds including Surfer, Terrax, Firelord, Nova, and Air Walker had NO chance of actually beating Morg with WOL and PC...they were all going to die without Galactus' intervention.

And in practice, Nova nearly beat him with one blast.

But if you want statements, Darkseid was considered as powerful as Time Trapper and Infinite Man, both of whom are literally abstracts.

Nova hurt Morg, he killed her.

Superman had a clean win against DS and multiple inconclusive fights. In Orion's series they had an even fight that Orion won.